Ross William Glendinning (born 17 September 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the

East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Formed in 1902 as the Union Football Club, the cl ...

in the

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WANFL) and for the

North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos a ...

and the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Footbal ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

(VFL). Solidly built but agile and skilful in equal measure, Glendinning was considered one of the finest key-position players of his era. Inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2000, he was West Coast's inaugural captain. The Ross Glendinning Medal is named in his honour and is awarded to the player judged best afield in the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

n derby between West Coast and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

each AFL season.

Playing career

Glendinning started his senior football career with East Perth in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). He joined under the father–son rule, his father Gus having played 69 games for the ''Royals'' from 1941 to 1951. Ross played 56 games for East Perth from 1974 to 1977. He joined North Melbourne in 1978, after being denied a clearance from East Perth in 1977. He twice won the club's

Best and Fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award and in 1983, winning the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

after finishing second the previous year. Strongly built, he could play at

centre half-forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the North Mel ...

or centre half-back. When was formed in 1986, Glendinning returned to his home state and was appointed the club's inaugural captain. Playing mainly at centre half-forward, he was the club's leading goal kicker in 1987 and 1988.

Post-football career

Following retirement, Glendinning was an expert commentator for

Channel 7 Channel 7 or TV7 may refer to: Television networks, channels and stations ;Algeria *TV7 (Algerian TV channel) ; Argentina *Channel 7 (Argentina), a government-owned Argentine TV station * Channel 7 – Bahía Blanca, an Argentine TV station in Bue ...

from 1989 till 1998 while also serving as a panelist on the

sportsworld ''Sportsworld'' (also known as ''NBC SportsWorld'') is an American sports anthology television program which aired on NBC on Saturday afternoons from 1978 to 1994. Format The program presented a wide variety of lower-profile and offbeat sporting ...

football panel. In March 2000, while serving as 's match committee chairman, Glendinning attracted attention for making remarks on television claiming 's star full-forward Matthew Lloyd was suspect under physical pressure. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy showed a video of the interview to his players in the lead-up to the match at

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the hig ...

. For the record, Essendon won the match by 36 points and would go on to claim the premiership at the end of the season, losing only one game along the way. In recent years, Glendinning returned to the

as corporate relations manager.

Honours

Glendinning has been inducted into the WA Hall of Champions (1994), the Australian Football Hall of Fame (2000), the WA Football Hall of Fame (2004) and the North Melbourne Hall of Fame (2012). He was named at centre half-back in the North Melbourne Football Club's Team of the Century. In addition, the Ross Glendinning Medal is named in his honour and is awarded to the player judged best afield in the West Australian derby between West Coast and Fremantle each AFL season. He was the coach of the

Western Australia Australian rules football team The Western Australia Australian rules football team is the state representative side of Western Australia in the sport of Australian rules football. Western Australia has a proud history in interstate football, having a successful historical ...

in the 1996 and 1997 State of Origin matches against South Australia and The Allies, losing both games.

Personal life

Glendinning is married to Kerry and has three daughters.

References

External links

* *
Profile
at WA Football Hall of Fame website
AFL Hall of Fame - Players
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glendinning, Ross 1956 births Living people East Perth Football Club players West Coast Eagles players North Melbourne Football Club players Syd Barker Medal winners Brownlow Medal winners All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Western Australian State of Origin players Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees People educated at Scotch College, Perth Australia international rules football team players